How many times have you heard someone say, “I wish I had what he/she has?” It’s easy to feel this way, not having taken into account the hard work and self-sacrifice it took for them to get what they have…a successful business, a slim figure, early retirement… It’s crazy how we are always looking from the outside in.
The Easy-Way-Out Myth
Too often we want to skip the hard work and go directly to the results. People are always looking for the easy way to get what they want – some magic formula. They want to lose weight without having to cut calories or exercise. They want to have nice things without having to save up the money to buy them. Nobody wants to suffer or sacrifice.
But the fact is you and I will never have the things we want to have in life if we aren’t willing to practice the disciplined and self-control it takes to have them. To put it bluntly, if you want to have the perks, you have to put in the work!
Proverbs 25:28 compares a person without self-control to a city with broken-down walls – full of rubble and chaos.
Get Organized
Look around your house at the chores you’ve started but never finished – simple household repairs, stacks of unpaid bills, unmade beds and dishes in the sink that never get washed. Getting organized in the normal routines of life and finishing little projects you’ve started is an important first step toward realizing larger goals.
If you can’t get a handle on the small things, how will you ever get it together to focus on the big things?
Starting today, decide to be a “finisher.” Start cleaning up the physical and personal messes in your life. Take your inspiration from the great finishers of the Bible. Moses led the Israelites around the desert for 40 years before they finally reached the Promised Land.
Water Your Seed lately?
We can be finishers too, if we will cooperate with God and put in the work He’s calling us to do. Stop being wishy-washy and start being decisive. Make up your mind to clean up the messes big and small that are dragging you down. Sure it’s hard, but God has equipped you for “hard.” He has already planted the seeds of discipline and self-control inside you. You just have to water those seeds with His Word to make them grow.
Whatever your goal is, whether it’s to get in good physical shape or change a negative attitude, start drawing on God’s power to help you achieve it. Philippians 4:6 says, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.
Ronne B
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